What do we really know about the role of microorganisms in iron sulfide mineral formation?
Aude A. Picard, Amy Gartman, Peter R. Girguis
2016, Frontiers in Earth Science (4)
Iron sulfide mineralization in low-temperature systems is a result of biotic and abiotic processes, though the delineation between these two modes of formation is not always straightforward. Here we review the role of microorganisms in the precipitation of extracellular iron sulfide minerals. We summarize the evidence that links sulfur-metabolizing microorganisms...
Mink predation on brown trout in a Black Hills stream
Jacob L. Davis, Jerry W. Wilhite, Steven R. Chipps
2016, The Prairie Naturalist (48) 4-10
In the early 2000’s, declines in the brown trout (Salmo trutta) fishery in Rapid Creek, South Dakota, caused concern for anglers and fisheries managers. We conducted a radio telemetry study in 2010 and 2011 to identify predation mortality associated with mink, using hatchery-reared (2010) or wild (2011) brown trout....
Should fatty acid signature proportions sum to 1 for diet estimation?
Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Suzanne M. Budge, Gregory W. Thiemann
2016, Ecological Research (31) 597-606
Knowledge of predator diets, including how diets might change through time or differ among predators, provides essential insights into their ecology. Diet estimation therefore remains an active area of research within quantitative ecology. Quantitative fatty acid signature analysis (QFASA) is an increasingly common method of diet estimation. QFASA is based...
Where the wild things are: A research agenda for studying wildlife-wilderness relationship
Michael K. Schwartz, Beth Hahn, Blake R. Hossack
2016, Journal of Forestry (114) 311-319
We explore the connection between US designated wilderness areas and wildlife with the goal of establishing a research agenda for better understanding this complex relationship. Our research agenda has two components. The first, “wildlife for wilderness,” considers the impact of wildlife on wilderness character. Whereas studies show that wildlife is...
Planning for ex situ conservation in the face of uncertainty
Stefano Canessa, Sarah J. Converse, Matt West, Nick Clemann, Graeme Gillespie, Michael McFadden, Aimee J. Silla, Kirsten M Parris, Michael A McCarthy
2016, Conservation Biology (30) 599-609
Ex situ conservation strategies for threatened species often require long-term commitment and financial investment to achieve management objectives. We present a framework that considers the decision to adopt ex situ management for a target species as the end point of several linked decisions. We used a decision tree to intuitively...
New challenges for grizzly bear management in Yellowstone National Park
Frank T. van Manen, Kerry A. Gunther
2016, Bulletin of the Shiretoko Museum (Special Issue 1) 79-96
A key factor contributing to the success of grizzly bear Ursus arctos conservation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has been the existence of a large protected area, Yellowstone National Park. We provide an overview of recovery efforts, how demographic parameters changed as the population increased, and how the bear management...
One thousand years of fires: Integrating proxy and model data
Natalie M. Kehrwald, Julie C. Aleman, Michael Coughlan, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, Esther N. Githumbi, Brian I. Magi, Jennifer R. Marlon, Mitchell J. Power
2016, Frontiers of Biogeography (8)
The current fires raging across Indonesia are emitting more carbon than the annual fossil fuel emissions of Germany or Japan, and the fires are still consuming vast tracts of rainforest and peatlands. The National Interagency Fire Center (www.nifc.gov) notes that 2015 is one worst fire years on record in the...
Building a subduction zone observatory
Joan S. Gomberg, Paul Bodin, Jody Bourgeois, Susan Cashman, Darrel Cowan, Kenneth C. Creager, Brendan Crowell, Alison Duvall, Arthur D. Frankel, Frank I. Gonzalez, Heidi Houston, Paul Johnson, Harvey Kelsey, Una Miller, Emily C. Roland, David Schmidt, Lydia M. Staisch, John Vidale, William Wilcock, Erin Wirth
2016, Eos, Earth and Space Science News
Subduction zones contain many of Earth’s most remarkable geologic structures, from the deepest oceanic trenches to glacier-covered mountains and steaming volcanoes. These environments formed through spectacular events: Nature’s largest earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions are born here....
Ecology and control of an introduced population of Southern Watersnakes (Nerodia fasciata) in southern California
Robert Reed, Brian D Todd, Oliver J. Miano, Mark Canfield, Robert N. Fisher, Louanne McMartin
2016, Herpetologica (72) 130-136
Native to the southeastern United States, Southern Watersnakes (Nerodia fasciata) are known from two sites in California, but their ecological impacts are poorly understood. We investigated the ecology of Southern Watersnakes in Machado Lake, Harbor City, Los Angeles County, California, including an assessment of control opportunities. We captured 306 watersnakes...
Body size distributions signal a regime shift in a lake ecosystem
Trisha Spanbauer, Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler, Tarsha Eason, Sherilyn C. Fritz, Ahjond S. Garmestani, Kirsty L. Nash, Jeffery R. Stone, Craig A. Stow, Shana M. Sundstrom
2016, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (283)
Communities of organisms, from mammals to microorganisms, have discontinuous distributions of body size. This pattern of size structuring is a conservative trait of community organization and is a product of processes that occur at multiple spatial and temporal scales. In this study, we assessed whether body size patterns serve as...
Extending Alaska's plate boundary: tectonic tremor generated by Yakutat subduction
Aaron G. Wech
2016, Geology (44) 587-590
The tectonics of the eastern end of the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone are complicated by the inclusion of the Yakutat microplate, which is colliding into and subducting beneath continental North America at near-Pacific-plate rates. The interaction among these plates at depth is not well understood, and further east, even less is...
Hierarchical species distribution models
Trevor J. Hefley, Mevin Hooten
2016, Current Landscape Ecology Reports (1) 87-97
Determining the distribution pattern of a species is important to increase scientific knowledge, inform management decisions, and conserve biodiversity. To infer spatial and temporal patterns, species distribution models have been developed for use with many sampling designs and types of data. Recently, it has been shown that count, presence-absence, and...
Population viability analysis for endangered Roanoke logperch
James H. Roberts, Paul L. Angermeier, Gregory B. Anderson
2016, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (7) 46-64
A common strategy for recovering endangered species is ensuring that populations exceed the minimum viable population size (MVP), a demographic benchmark that theoretically ensures low long-term extinction risk. One method of establishing MVP is population viability analysis, a modeling technique that simulates population trajectories and forecasts extinction risk based on...
Changes in rates of capture and demographics of Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-eared Bat) in Western Virginia before and after onset of white-nose syndrome
Richard J. Reynolds, Karen E. Powers, Wil Orndorff, W. Mark Ford, Christopher S. Hobson
2016, Northeastern Naturalist (23) 195-204
Documenting the impacts of white-nose syndrome (WNS) on demographic patterns, such as annual survivorship and recruitment, is important to understanding the extirpation or possible stabilization and recovery of species over time. To document demographic impacts of WNS on Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-eared Bat), we mistnetted at sites in western Virginia...
Reevaluation of the Crooked Ridge River- Early Pleistocene (ca. 2 Ma) age and origin of the White Mesa Alluvium, northeastern Arizona
Richard Hereford, Sue Beard, William R. Dickinson, Karl E. Karlstrom, Matthew T. Heizler, Laura J. Crossey, Lee Amoroso, Kyle House, Mark Pecha
2016, Geosphere (12) 768-789
Essential features of the previously named and described Miocene Crooked Ridge River in northeastern Arizona (USA) are reexamined using new geologic and geochronologic data. Previously it was proposed that Cenozoic alluvium at Crooked Ridge and southern White Mesa was pre–early Miocene, the product of a large, vigorous late Paleogene river...
Recent changes in stream flashiness and flooding, and effects of flood management in North Carolina and Virginia
Beatriz Mogollon, Emmanuel A. Frimpong, Andrew B. Hoegh, Paul L. Angermeier
2016, Journal of the American Water Resources Association (52) 561-577
The southeastern United States has undergone anthropogenic changes in landscape structure, with the potential to increase (e.g., urbanization) and decrease (e.g., reservoir construction) stream flashiness and flooding. Assessment of the outcome of such change can provide insight into the efficacy of current strategies and policies to manage water resources. We...
Seasonal changes in atmospheric noise levels and the annual variation in pigeon homing performance
Jonathan T. Hagstrum, Hugh P. McIsaac, Douglas P. Drob
2016, Journal of Comparative Physiology A (202) 413-424
Repeated releases of experienced homing pigeons from single sites were conducted between 1972 and 1974 near Cornell University in upstate New York and between 1982 and 1983 near the University of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, USA. No annual variation in homing performance was observed at these sites in eastern North...
Book review: Current perspectives on zinc deposits
Karen D. Kelley
2016, Economic Geology (111) 545-546
This book, published in 2015 by the Irish Association for Economic Geology (IAEG), is a compilation of papers and abstracts written by selected authors who attended the ZINC 2010 Conference in Cork, Ireland. Unlike most books produced each decade by the IAEG, which are focused primarily on achievements of the Irish and...
Seismic envelope-based detection and location of ground-coupled airwaves from volcanoes in Alaska
David Fee, Matthew M. Haney, Robin S. Matoza, Curt A.L. Szuberla, John J. Lyons, Christopher F. Waythomas
2016, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (106) 1024-1035
Volcanic explosions and other infrasonic sources frequently produce acoustic waves that are recorded by seismometers. Here we explore multiple techniques to detect, locate, and characterize ground‐coupled airwaves (GCA) on volcano seismic networks in Alaska. GCA waveforms are typically incoherent between stations, thus we use envelope‐based techniques in our analyses. For...
Optical properties of dissolved organic matter (DOM): Effects of biological and photolytic degradation
Angela Hansen, Tamara E. C. Kraus, Brian A. Pellerin, Jacob Fleck, Bryan D. Downing, Brian A. Bergamaschi
2016, Limnology and Oceanography (61) 1015-1032
Advances in spectroscopic techniques have led to an increase in the use of optical properties (absorbance and fluorescence) to assess dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition and infer sources and processing. However, little information is available to assess the impact of biological and photolytic processing on the optical properties of original...
Hydrologic analyses in support of the Navajo Generating Station–Kayenta Mine Complex environmental impact statement
Stanley A. Leake, Jamie P. Macy, Margot Truini
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1088
IntroductionThe U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region (Reclamation) is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Navajo Generating Station-Kayenta Mine Complex Project (NGS-KMC Project). The proposed project involves various Federal approvals that would facilitate continued operation of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) from December...
Comments to Middle Miocene closure of the Central American Seaway
A.G. Coates, Robert F. Stallard
2016, Science (348)
In a recent paper proposing an early (mid-Miocene) closure of the Central American Seaway (CAS), Montes et al. 2015 (1) disregard existing paleogeographic data that invalidate Panama as a source for zircons, and inappropriately ignore the evidence for trans-isthmian marine connections until 4-3 Ma. They also fail to cite previous...
The social, economic, and environmental importance of inland fish and fisheries
Abigail J. Lynch, Steven J. Cooke, Andrew M. Deines, Shannon D. Bower, David B. Bunnell, Ian G. Cowx, Vivian M. Nguyen, Joel K. Nohner, Kaviphone Phouthavong, Betsy Riley, Mark W. Rogers, William W. Taylor, Whitney Woelmer, So-Jung Youn, T. Douglas Beard Jr.
2016, Environmental Reviews (24) 115-121
Though reported capture fisheries are dominated by marine production, inland fish and fisheries make substantial contributions to meeting the challenges faced by individuals, society, and the environment in a changing global landscape. Inland capture fisheries and aquaculture contribute over 40% to the world’s reported finfish production from less than 0.01%...
Geologic and geochemical results from boreholes drilled in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 2007 and 2008
Cheryl Jaworowski, David Susong, Henry Heasler, David Mencin, Wade Johnson, Rick Conrey, Jennipher Von Stauffenberg
2016, Open-File Report 2016-1028
Between 2007 and 2008, seven Earthscope Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) boreholes ranging in depth from about 200 to 800 feet deep were drilled in and adjacent to the Yellowstone caldera in Yellowstone National Park, for the purpose of installing volcano monitoring instrumentation. Five of the seven boreholes were equipped...
Trophic dynamics of shrinking Subarctic lakes: naturally eutrophic waters impart resilience to rising nutrient and major ion concentrations
Tyler Lewis, Mark S. Lindberg, Joel A. Schmutz, Patricia J. Heglund, Joshua H. Schmidt, Adam J. Dubour, Jennifer R. Rover, Mark R. Bertram
2016, Oecologia (181) 583-596
Shrinking lakes were recently observed for several Arctic and Subarctic regions due to increased evaporation and permafrost degradation. Along with lake drawdown, these processes often boost aquatic chemical concentrations, potentially impacting trophic dynamics. In particular, elevated chemical levels may impact primary productivity, which may in turn influence populations of primary...
